Make It Right
by CastleQuill
Summary: When Evan Evans comes to Ohio to reunite with his twin, two things immediately become obvious. One, nobody believes that Evan actually exists. And two, Sam is completely in love with his best friend Blaine, but will never admit it. With this information, Evan comes up with a plan to make Sam's dream come true.
1. Chapter 1

**I didn't intend to start another chapter story, but I couldn't resist. This will be a shorter story, likely around five or six chapters, though that might change. Unlike my other story, Countdown to Regionals, this will not be updated on a specific schedule. I will, however, try to get a new chapter up at least once a week, if I can.**

**A thousand thanks to my beta, Tuuzmorado.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, and I highly doubt that I ever will. If you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.**

* * *

Evan stood in front of the Hummel house, staring at the place where his twin brother had lived since Junior year. Nobody knew he was coming, but there was no way that he could have stayed away. Not after Sam had been shot at.

It didn't matter that Sam hadn't actually been in danger, or that the bullets weren't aimed at him (or anyone else, from the sounds of it). It still would've been terrifying, meaning that Sam needed his family around him now. Evan wasn't entirely sure if he qualified anymore, if there was any chance of helping his brother, then he had to try.

But first he had to find the courage to knock on the door.

Taking a deep breath, he rolled his suitcase up the driveway and rang the doorbell once. He'd put this off long enough, considering that the shooting had been Tuesday, and it was already Sunday. He'd waited so long because he knew that his parents would race to Ohio to be with Sam as soon as they heard, and Evan wasn't quite ready to see them. But they'd returned to Kentucky yesterday, so no more procrastinating. Though he sort of hoped that Sam wouldn't be the one to answer the door. Evan wanted a few more moments to prepare himself first.

To his relief, the door was opened by a stranger in a flannel shirt and backward baseball cap. He frowned when he saw who was standing there, but not like he was upset. More like he was concerned. "Sam? I thought you were in your room. And-" he glanced down "-what's with the suitcase and the glasses?"

Evan instinctively started rubbing the end of his glasses, a nervous habit that he'd tried to rid himself of years ago, to no success. "I, um, I'm not Sam. I'm his brother. I know I didn't tell you I was coming, but could I see him? And maybe stay here until I'm sure he's okay?"

The man – he must be Mr. Hummel, Evan decided – blinked, looking surprised. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an understatement. But he stepped aside and ushered Evan in. "Sam's upstairs, third door on the right. Go ahead and bring your stuff. You two can stay together if you want, or go ahead and grab either of my sons' rooms, they won't care. Well, Kurt might. Just make sure not to mess anything up if you go in there."

"Thank you very much," Evan said, lifting his bag and heading for the stairs. "I know this must be weird. You couldn't have expected someone like me to show up."

"No, it's safe to say I didn't," Mr. Hummel agreed. "I didn't even know Sam had any more siblings. I thought it was just the two. If you didn't look so much alike I'd think that you were lying to me."

Evan grimaced. It was what he had expected, but it still hurt to hear it, more than he'd thought that it would.

"Listen, kid, I have to ask," Mr. Hummel said, which was never a beginning that led to anything good. "Is Sam going to want to see you?"

That was the question, wasn't it? "I hope so."

"Go see him, then."

Evan nodded and started up the stairs, but stopped when Mr. Hummel called after him, "And one more thing." When Evan turned to look at him, he said, "Whatever happened between you too – and don't look so surprised, it's obvious that something did – there's no reason why you can't fix it."

For some reason, Evan's throat suddenly felt tight. It must be nerves, or else he was already getting emotional about a reunion that hadn't even happened that. He swallowed hard so that he could speak. "Thanks, Mr. Hummel."

The man smiled. "Call me Burt, kid. And I'll want to know your name if you're going to be staying here."

"Evan Evans, sir." His parents had thought it was adorable. Personally, he was half convinced that they'd seen into the future and decided to punish him in advance.

"Nice to meet you, Evan," Burt said, holding out his hand for him to shake.

Evan walked up the stairs and down the hall. Third door on the right, just like Burt had said. The door was open, and Sam was lying on the bed, reading a book. That was a bad sign. Sam hated reading because of his dyslexia; he only willingly opened a book when he was trying to distract himself from something serious, because it took all his concentration to understand the words. Evan leaned against the door frame, watching his twin for a minute while he tried to think up the perfect thing to say. How did you greet someone after almost three years apart? That was probably something he should have thought about during the long train ride from Florida to Ohio, but somehow that hadn't happened.

Oh, forget it. He couldn't think of the perfect remark, so he just asked the thing he most wanted to know. "How are you doing, Sam?"

Sam's head jerked up so fast it was almost comical. Evan forced himself to relax and look calm, not at all like he was holding his breath, waiting to see how his brother would react.

Sam was off the bed in a second and wrapping his arms around Evan, who only hesitated for a moment before hugging back just as tight. "What are you doing here?" Sam asked. "I didn't think you were coming home again."

"I didn't think I was, either, until what happened at McKinley." Evan reluctantly pulled away. He didn't want to let go. "Don't worry, it's only for a little while, then you'll be free of me," he said with an easy smile that he hoped Sam wouldn't be able to see through.

"Are you kidding?" Sam looked honestly shocked by that. He wrapped one arm around Evan and pulled him toward the bed. "Stay as long as you want! Oh, do you think you'll still be here tomorrow afternoon? Can you come to school with me to meet the glee club?"

Evan raised one eyebrow. "You actually want me to meet them?"

Sam blinked and gave Evan a weird look. "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

Evan could think of a few reasons. "They don't know I exist, do they?" He didn't wait for an answer. Burt's reaction had told him enough. "You really want to tell them that your brother's a screw-up?"

"No, I want to tell them that my brother's super strong and awesome, because that's what's true," Sam said. He squeezed Evan's shoulder. "You know that the only reason they don't know about you is because you told me not to. Seriously, I want to brag to them all about how awesome you're doing now. It was killing me to keep this quiet and act like you didn't exist." Evan could hear the honest pain in Sam's voice. Yeah, he was the kind of person who'd be hurt by something like this. If Evan had been a good older brother, then he would've let Sam vent to his friends. But Evan didn't want them to know, not even the kids that he had never met.

Besides, it was for Sam's sake, too. Who wanted to be known as the brother of the drug-addict?

It had started freshman year. That was when Dad lost his job. Things got tight around their house, and Sam and Evan had to drop out of their all-boys boarding school and go to a public high school instead. Sam did fine – that boy could make friends with anyone. Evan, not so much.

It started with parties. And beer. And a ton of sex that thank God hadn't caused any pregnancies or STDs. He didn't quite remember when he'd switched to drugs – in fact, a whole lot of that year was one big blur. But anyway, it had happened, and there was no going back. He figured it'd be safe as long as he avoided the heavy stuff. No way he'd get addicted just from one or two snorts, right? Ha. Haha.

It ended when a fight over a joint left him in the hospital with broken ribs and a busted head. That's when all of them had had to wake up and realize that yeah, Evan was messed up. The entire family moved to Lima, to get away from all kids who'd either tempt him to start again or come back and beat him twice as hard. Evan agreed to go to rehab during one of his saner moments, which hadn't lasted all that long. And it had literally felt like his body was ripping itself to a million different pieces, but he'd gotten free.

The result? He was over two years clean, but he'd messed things up too badly to go back. So he'd moved in with his aunt and uncle down in Florida. It was a nice place. He liked it. And they didn't make him try to call his family, which he appreciated. They wouldn't want to hear from him, anyway.

Except for Sam, apparently. But then, Sam was incapable of judging anyone or holding grudges. It was the nicest thing about him, which was saying a lot. But there was no reason to think that anyone else would be so accepting.

"So, will you come to school with me?" Sam asked after a minute passed and Evan still hadn't answered. Then he gave Evan an adorable pleading look, so there was only one answer he could give. Plus, the whole point was to cheer Sam up. Refusing to do something that Sam wanted would be counterproductive.

"Of course I will, if you still want me to," Evan said, and was instantly rewarded by Sam tackle-hugging him again, knocking them both backward onto the bed. Evan laughed, though that was kind of hard with Sam's weight pressing down on his chest. "You'll have to come up with a reason why you never told anyone about me," he said on a more serious note. There was no way that he was letting anyone know the truth, not after he'd managed to hide it for so long, and definitely not when he was around to see everyone's reactions.

Sam shrugged as he sat up, looking completely unconcerned. "I'll just say that you live with Aunt Mindy and don't come home often, so it never really came up. That's what we can tell Burt, too, if you want. Blaine never mentioned having an older brother and nobody thought much of it." Sam's eyes suddenly lit up. "I can't wait for you to meet Blaine! The two of you will totally love each other!"

Personally, Evan doubted that Burt would believe that the story was really that simple - he already knew that something was up, after all. Hopefully he'd be the kind of man who wouldn't question them, though. "Who's Blaine?" Evan asked, grabbing a pillow and making himself comfortable, propped up on one elbow and staring at his twin. It felt kind of surreal to be together again. In a good way. "Your girlfriend?" They'd had a quick chat around Christmas, and both of them sent each other pictures of their respective girlfriends, so Evan knew that Sam had one – a real cute girl, too. But Evan couldn't for the life of him remember her name. Blaine sounded close, but not exactly right, not to mention that it was too masculine.

Sam snorted and shook his head. "No, that was Brittany. We're not together anymore. Blaine's my best friend. He's super cool."

"That's too bad about the break-up," Evan said, not entirely sure how he should react. If they'd just been together casually, or if they'd broken up months ago, then Evan didn't want to make it weird by acting too upset. But at the same time, he didn't want to be too flippant, either. Especially if the pain was still fresh. "When did that happen?"

Sam shrugged again, but his smile faded, and he looked down. "Wednesday. We got together and talked it out. I guess the shooting made us both see things differently. Understand what's really important. I'm pretty sure she's gotten back with her ex-girlfriend. It's fine, though. We're still friends, and I wanted to break up just as much as she did. Life's short, you know? Love whoever you love, however long you can."

Evan smiled slightly, appreciating the sentiment. And Sam honestly didn't look too heartbroken. More like... quiet. And thoughtful. Which weren't always words that described Sam too much, so there must be something big behind this. "Understand what's really important," he mused, trying to figure out why there seemed to be more to it than what Sam had said. "Love whoever you love. You wanted to break up with her." He got it. "Sam, are you in love with someone else?"

"What? No!" Sam said, which was all the confirmation that Evan needs. And Sam seems to realize it, because he gives in. "Okay, I totally am. But it's not like we're ever going to be more than friends."

"You don't know that," Evan said, pointing at Sam dramatically. "You, my dear brother, are a catch. Seriously, whoever you like would be lucky to have you. Unless there's a boyfriend in the mix?" Or worse, a girlfriend.

"Ex-boyfriend, but I think they're still in love, even though Kurt lives in New York and is dating someone else," Sam mumbled. "And I've already said the whole 'I know you have a crush on me but let's just be friends' thing. How am I supposed to come back from that?"

Evan rolled his eyes. Sometimes, his brother could be hopeless about romance. Okay, all the time would probably be more accurate. "I'll tell you what you do. You find your special someone and say 'Hey, I know I turned you down, but I just realized that I'm in love with you'. Trust me, if there's even a little bit of interest, you two would get together. Or, you're in glee club, right? Do a serenade."

Sam shook his head stubbornly. "Let's just not talk about it, okay?"

"Okay," Evan agreed, somewhat reluctantly. He was fully determined to find who Sam's crush was by the end of the week and get them together. After all, Sam deserved happiness more than anyone else in the world, and if this mystery person could help with that, then Evan would do anything to make sure they fell in love.

"Supper's ready, boys," Burt called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Come on," Sam said, jumping to his feet. He grabbed Evan's arm and pulled him toward the doorway hard enough that it hurt a little, but Evan would never complain. It felt nice having his brother back. Nothing else could possibly compare to that.

* * *

Dinner was an awkward affair. Burt's wife, Carole, had been just as shocked as Burt was when she saw Evan. The entire meal was spent trying to answer their questions truthfully without actually revealing anything about why Evan lived in Florida, and watching them share suspicious looks when he and Sam didn't do a good enough job. Neither of them pressed for more information than they gave, however, which was exactly why Evan decided he liked the Hummels. They were good people for Sam to stay with.

"I'm going to call Blaine," Sam said after the dishes had been washed. "Should I tell him about your visit or wait until tomorrow?"

Evan thought about it for a moment, then grinned. "Let's wait. I kind of want to see their faces when they find out."

"Me, too," Sam agreed. "Okay, my lips will be sealed!" He made the motion for locking his lips and tossing the imaginary key toward the trashcan, then wandered upstairs while Evan headed outside to make a phone call of his own.

It was cold out, even through his thick sweater, and he was pretty sure that nobody would've eavesdropped on him even if he'd stayed in the house. But he kind of liked the outdoors. It was peaceful to just sit on the porch and stare out at the empty street. It was just starting to get dark, meaning that the sky was gloomy but he could still see. His favorite time.

The first person he called was Aunt Mindy, letting her know that he'd made it there okay and that Burt had given him a place to stay. She thanked him, and they chatted for a few minutes about their days before he could hang up and call the person he really wanted to speak to.

Chloe picked up on the second ring. "What did Sam say?" she demanded, in lieu of a greeting.

Evan couldn't help but smile at the sound of her voice. It had only been a day, but god, he already missed her. "He was really happy to see me," Evan said, his grin growing. "It was almost weird how normal it felt, if that makes sense. There should have been some big reunion with both of us crying, and he should have announced that he still hasn't forgiven me or that he's disgusted by what I did or something like that. Instead, we just acted like brothers. Like nothing had ever separated us."

Chloe was the only person outside his family who knew anything about his freshman year. It had kind of come out during a drunken party last year, about a month after they'd started dating. After, he'd expected her to dump him - probably through text, so that she wouldn't even have to see his face again. Instead, she'd turned up at his doorstep and asked gentle questions until the whole truth had tumbled out. Then they'd kissed. A lot.

He kind of loved her.

"And who was it who'd predicted that it would go this well?" Chloe asked.

"You were," he said. "And yeah, you're always right and all that. Thanks, though."

"Tell me everything," Chloe said. "Seriously, we both know you like to talk, so go at it. Don't forget a single thing or I will seriously hurt you!"

He chuckled but did so, relaying everything from the moment he'd gotten to the train station all the way to the end of dinner. He must have been babbling for half an hour by the time he was done, but Chloe listened the whole time, sometimes making a comment but mostly just staying silent.

"You really should call your parents," she said, out of nowhere. "Don't argue for a minute, okay? Sam was happy to see you. What makes you think that your parents won't be the same way?"

He shook his head - a pointless gesture, because she couldn't see it. "It's not the same thing," he said. "Sam and I have always emailed every once in a while. I already knew that he didn't hate me completely. But I literally haven't had any contact with my parents at all since about halfway through sophomore year."

"And who's fault was that?" she asked, her voice clearly implying that she thought it was his.

"They sent me to live with my aunt and uncle several states away," Evan pointed out. "They wouldn't have done that if they wanted me."

"I thought you were the one who chose to live with them?" Chloe said.

"It's more complicated than that," he said, sliding his glasses up with his free hand so he could rub his eyes. "Truth is, after all the hell I put them through, they were happy to get rid of me. Nothing's going to change that, and I'm fine, so can we please stop talking about it?"

"You may be fine," she said quietly, "but I want you to be happy. That's the whole reason I'm pushing this so much."

He sighed and leaned forward, resting his chin on his palm. "Just tell me what you did today. Did you end up seeing that movie you wanted?"

They were about five minutes into her description of her day (which didn't involve a movie, but did involve a really funny story about her little brother running around the mall pretending to be Captain Underpants) when Sam walked out. "Oh, hey, there you are! Who are you talking to?"

"Is that Sam?" Chloe asked, breaking herself off mid-sentence. "I want to talk to him! Hand the phone over!"

Evan chuckled and held out the phone. "Here, say hi to my girlfriend."

"Hey, Chloe!" Sam greeted. Evan was impressed and kind of touched that he'd remembered her name, even though Evan couldn't have mentioned it more than two or three times, and not for several months now. The two of them talked for a few minutes, a laugh escaping Sam a couple of times. Evan had no clue what Chloe was saying, but knowing her, it was probably something embarrassing about him. Not that he minded.

"Anyway, we should get ready for bed soon," Sam said, handing the phone back over. "I want to leave early tomorrow so you can meet some people before class starts."

"Okay," Evan said, putting the phone back to his ear. "I've got to go. Love you."

"Love you, too," she echoed, then hung up.

"I like her," Sam said, holding out his hand to yank Evan to his feet. "I'm glad you have someone like her."

"Yeah," Evan agreed. "And I'm sure whoever you're in love with is just a great as her. You'll have to introduce us." There was no way Evan would go home without meeting this person for himself. He didn't really plan to go into overprotective-big-brother mode or anything (even though he was technically older by eight minutes), but his mission was to make sure Sam was happy. Nothing would get in the way of that.

"Definitely," Sam said quietly, his eyes getting a faraway look that made Evan smile. Sam was clearly head-over-heels, more than he'd been for Brittany, if the way he'd talked about her during their brief conversation last December was any indication. Sam hadn't said anything rude about her - there wasn't a single rude bone in Sam's body - but he hadn't really acted like he felt too much. This, however, was completely different.

Sam shook his head like he was clearing his thoughts. "Anyway, you'll meet everyone tomorrow," he said as they headed into the house. Evan smiled and tried to look excited.

Secretly, he was terrified that they wouldn't like them, that they'd learn too much, that Evan would somehow ruin Sam's entire social life – any one of those reasons. But Sam didn't need to know that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ugh, this one was supposed to be up so much sooner than this! Sorry that it was so late, but I'll try my best to make sure the next chapter is up within the next week.**

**Thanks, as always, to Tuuzmorado! **

* * *

"Come on, Evan, it's time to get up."

Evan groaned and rolled over, squishing his face against his pillow to try to block out the noise. Sam laughed and shook his shoulder. "Come on, I wanna get there early to introduce you to everyone."

"Too early," Evan groaned, trying to squirm away from Sam's hand, without success. "Time is it?" he slurred, lifting his head a little and blinking blearily at his twin.

"About six," Sam said.

Evan groaned. It didn't matter if that what the education system seemed to think; this was way too early to be up on a Monday morning. "Going back to bed," he mumbled, flopping down onto his pillow again.

"No you don't," Sam said, yanking the blankets off of Evan, who cried out at the sudden shock of cold air and curled around himself. "School starts at seven thirty. We need to leave by six thirty if we want to get there in time for Glee, and I'm hoping we can get there a little earlier than that so that you can meet people. Get out of bed or I'm going to start jumping on it."

Evan opened his eyes just enough to glare at his twin. Threatening to jump on the bed was how he used to force Stacey and Stevie out of bed. "You wouldn't," he said.

"Oh yes I would." Sam grinned and hopped up to stand on the bed to prove it, bending his knees like he really was going to start jumping. And knowing him, probably land straight on Evan's head by accident.

"Alright, fine, I'm up," Evan groaned, rolling out of bed and nearly face planting in the process. "Happy now?"

"Yup," Sam said, sounding like he meant it. He headed over to his closet and started rooting around. Last night, Evan and Sam had wanted to stay up talking, and Sam had a queen-sized bed, so the two of them had ended up sharing a room. "You can have the bathroom first, if you want."

"Thanks," Evan said, groping for his glasses. He found them and stuck them on his face, then pulled the first set of clothes he found out of his bag and stumbled for the bathroom. He and Sam had both showered the night before, so all he had to do was dress, brush his teeth, and gel his hair a little. (Maybe Sam liked the shaggy look, but Evan sure didn't.) A few minutes later he walked back into the room. "You decent?" Evan called as he walked in, one hand over his eyes just in case.

"Yeah," Sam said, and Evan lowered his hand just in time to see Sam's mouth fall open and his eyes widen.

"What?" Evan asked, glancing down at his outfit. It was a green, short-sleeved shirt and jeans. Nothing particularly horrifying or awe-inspiring about that. "You don't like my style or something? You wear the same kinds of clothes all the time."

"That's so cool!" Sam said, and before Evan knew what was happening, he was ripping his shirt off.

"My god, Sam!" Evan exclaimed, turning away. "At least warn me before you do that!"

"Sorry," Sam said. "But you have to see this! Look!"

Evan slowly moved his head to look at him. Thankfully, Sam was dressed again. And he was wearing the exact same green shirt that Evan had on. "Isn't this awesome?" he asked. "What are the odds that we'd have the same shirt? It's like, twin magic."

"Or it's because both of us let mom pick out our clothes for way too long, and her tastes are rubbing off on us," Evan countered. Green had always been Mom's favorite color.

"I like my idea better," Sam said. Of course he did. His smile softened suddenly, turning almost wistful. He sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him, which Evan quickly took. "Remember how Mom used to dress us the same when we were little? And then nobody could ever tell us apart."

Evan grinned, happy to join in the reminiscing. God, he missed those times. "Remember that weekend with Aunt Mindy when we kept switching names? I don't think she ever actually figured out who was who." That had been one of their best pranks ever. After the first day of mix-ups, she'd just given up and called them both "Boy".

Sam laughed. "Oh, that was great! You know, we still look a ton alike." He ruffled Evan's hair playfully, ignoring all of Evan's grumbles about not messing it up. "You're still dying your hair."

"So are you," Evan said. The two of them had lightened their hair with lemon juice during eighth grade (which made Dad throw a complete fit while Mom just looked amused). Freshman year, Evan had cut all the bright-blonde hair off and let it go back to its slightly-darker, natural color, but recently he'd grown it out and lightened it again. He'd never admit it out loud, but he'd purposely made his hair look as much like Sam's as possible – minus the style, because Evan liked to keep his neat. Part of him had just really wanted to look like identical twins again, even if they never saw each other. And if that meant growing his hair longer than he wanted, well, that's what he did.

"I don't get why you use gel. It's gross," Sam said, staring down at the gel coating his palm. Ha, served him right for messing with Evan's hair. Now he'd have to restyle it. "At least you're not as bad as Blaine. You should see it. I'm not even sure if it counts as hair anymore."

"You'll have to introduce me to him," Evan said, trying to remember what he knew about Blaine. Last night, Sam had gone on about all of his friends in Glee club, but the stories had been too jumbled to make a lot of sense. Evan was pretty sure that this Blaine guy was a cheerleader, was really nice but completely oblivious to little things like girls serenading him straight to his face, and looked super hot in a superhero costume. Evan wasn't entirely sure why Sam had felt the need to include the last part.

"As soon as we get there," Sam promised, jumping to his feet. "Come on, we should get going."

"Sure, just a minute." Evan reached down and pulled out a random sweater from his bag. It was bright orange, the kind of color he normally would never wear. But it was also the softest thing he owned, which was why he put up with how it looked.

"Wait, you're going to wear a sweater?" Sam asked, sounding surprised. "It's super warm out. You'll be roasting by lunch."

"I came from Florida," Evan reminded him. "Ohio is a lot colder than I'm used to."

"Still, you're not going to need it," Sam said.

Evan shrugged and threw the sweater over his back, tying the sleeves together so it hung off his shoulders. There, now he didn't have to wear it if it really did turn out to be too warm, but he'd have it with him, just in case. It was also pretty stylish, actually.

"Aren't you going to get breakfast?" Evan asked, as the two of them walked down the stairs.

Sam shook his head. "We don't have time. I want to get there as soon as we can. And anyway, I'm not that hungry in the morning. You can grab something to eat on the go if you want."

Evan stopped walking and shook his head firmly. "You're going to eat something," he said. He might be distant from the family, but he had an idea that something was going on with Sam; it had been worrying him since freshman year. His junk-food-obsessed brother suddenly turned into a buff health nut when he reached high school? Something wasn't right there, and Evan really should have done something about it back when it began. He hadn't, though, so he had to make up for it now.

"Ugh, not you, too," Sam groaned. "Blaine is always obsessing about what I eat. I'm being completely healthy, I promise you."

Evan liked this Blaine guy already. He didn't bother to point out that is was Sam's health-obsession that worried him the most. Instead, he just pointed toward the kitchen.

Sam rolled his eyes but grabbed two apples from the counter, tossing one at Evan while he kept the second for himself. "There. Happy?"

"Yes." Not exactly a wholesome breakfast, but better than nothing.

The ride to McKinley only took a few minutes, and Sam filled the whole time with stories about his friends. Not all of them made a lot of sense – why the heck would Sam break into a rival school in a superhero costume to steal back a trophy? – but Sam managed to make them funny, anyway.

"I gotta run to the bathroom," Sam said as soon as they entered the school. "Can you go grab my history book for me? Locker number 217."

"Got it." Evan followed the numbers on the lockers until he found the right one and eagerly opened it, hoping that it would hold some clue about Sam's mystery love.

The inside of the door was covered in pictures, about ninety percent of which included a boy with dark, gelled hair. That must be Blaine. Evan took a minute to study him. He looked like a nice guy, always grinning for the camera and goofing around. There was a particularly sweet one of him hugging an Asian girl, clearly not realizing that someone was taking a picture. It was really adorable, and Evan was glad that Sam had such a good friend, but it didn't exactly help him figure out who Sam had a crush on. Maybe it was the Asian girl, though there was only one picture of her. There were a few other pictures of various girls dancing or grinning or posing with Blaine. Any one of them could be Sam's mystery love.

"Hey, Sam," a voice called. Evan turned to see a boy in a wheelchair rolling towards him, flanked by a blonde cheerleader and a short, brown-haired girl. After a moment, Evan recognized the cheerleader as Brittany. "What's with the glasses?" the boy asked.

"I'm not Sam," Evan said, holding out his hand for the boy to shake. "I'm his twin, Evan Evans. It's nice to meet you."

Brittany squealed, looking excited. "Sam has a twin? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Brittany," the boy said quietly, shooting her a look that Evan didn't quite understand and shaking his head. "What are you doing, Sam?" he asked, his voice quiet and concerned.

Evan awkwardly let his hand fall. "I told you, I'm not Sam," he said. "But to answer my question, I'm visiting McKinley for the week to help Sam deal with the shooting."

"Are you having a mental breakdown or something?" the other girl asked in a high voice that made Evan cringe a little. He frowned at her, not sure what she meant.

"That's so nice of you," Brittany said, completely ignoring what the other girl had said. Evan decided to do the same. "Are you sure that you two are twins, and that the government didn't clone you? Because you two look a whole lot alike. Is that why we've never seen you before, because the scientists just made you and until today you didn't exist?"

Evan chuckled. He could already sort of understand what Sam had seen in this girl. She was adorable in a very odd way. "No, I was born the normal way, though your explanation sounds like a lot more fun. Maybe I should tell people that just to see what they say."

Brittany looked disappointed. "No scientists? Was Sam abducted by aliens who split him in half and that's how you were created?"

"Nope, nothing like that, either." Evan grinned, thoroughly amused.

"Then why haven't I seen you before?" she asked.

He forced his smile to stay on his face. It wasn't exactly a question he wanted to answer, but he'd prepared for this, so he was ready with an immediate response. "I got a scholarship to go to a private school in Florida, so I live down their with my aunt. I'm just in town for the week." Technically true. He just didn't mention that he'd moved in with his aunt way before he had been in any shape to even think about his grades, let alone cleaned up enough to get that kind of scholarship. He'd had to go to public schools the past two years; it was only been this year that he'd gotten the scholarship and transferred away from the hellhole that was the public school system.

"Scholarship?" she asked, looking surprised. "You must be really smart."

He shrugged. "I guess?" Personally, he thought that that was debatable, considering all the stupid things he'd done. But when it came to school work, it was safe to say that yes, he did do pretty good.

The brown-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Come on, Sam. You can drop the act."

"What do you mean?" Evan asked. "What act?"

"Pretending to have a twin," she said. "It's fine, do whatever you want, but we all know it's really you."

Evan decided instantly that he didn't like this girl. "I understand why you think I'm Sam," he said slowly, trying not to get upset. After all, they did look a whole lot alike, and since they'd never heard of his existence before, it must be a pretty big surprise. He really did understand why they'd think that. Sort of. "But I really am Evan."

"Right," she said, raising her eyebrows, clearly not believing him.

"Uh, we'd better go," the boy said. "Or, at least, I'm going to go. See you later, Sa- I mean, Evan." He started to wheel past Evan, not looking at him. Oh, great. Another non-believer.

"Wait, can I get your name at least?" Evan asked.

The boy shook his head. "Come on, you know my name."

Evan frowned, half-wanting to demand that the boy tell him. Truthfully, he probably did know the boy's name after all the stories that Sam had told him; it'd just be easier to be told it instead of having to sort through everything he remembered. And anyway, it was really annoying that the boy kept assuming that he was Sam. Still, he thought back and tried to come up with something. "Artie?" he asked, remembering one anecdote Sam had shared, something about how he and Artie had been the only ones fully clothed during a photo shoot.

The boy nodded, and Evan silently congratulated himself on getting it right.

"And you know my name," the annoying girl said, like the answer was self-evident.

"Uh, no," Evan said, and snorted at the way her mouth fell open in shock.

"Come on, Sugar, Brittany, let's get going," Artie said. Probably trying to get them out of there before the girl – Sugar – threw a fit, which she looked right on the verge of doing. "See you in Glee, I guess."

"See you," Evan called as they walked off, turning back to search for Sam's history book. Which wasn't exactly an easy task; Evan kind of doubted that Sam had cleaned out his locker since the beginning of the year, and by now it was pretty much a mess. Still, Evan managed to find it underneath an empty bag of Doritos (Sam's secret weakness), half-hidden by a T shirt that had been stained by some purple liquid. Evan wasn't sure if he should even ask about that one.

He stood there for a few minutes, waiting for Sam to come back, feeling awkward and out-of-place as the mob of students moved around him, not even glancing in his direction. After five minutes of waiting, Evan was thinking about going to look for Sam, but he didn't have any idea where to even begin.

A boy walked past who Evan vaguely recognized from one of the pictures in Sam's locker, a group shot of the whole New Directions. Relieved, Evan hurried after him. "Hey, have you seen Sam?"

The boy turned around, eyebrows rising in surprise. "Uh, is there a reason you're asking if I've seen you even though you're standing right in front of me?" he asked.

Evan shook his head with a sigh, already sensing that he would have to give this explanation _a lot_. "I'm his twin, Evan. I'm visiting for the week, and Sam was going to show me around, but he's wandered off somewhere."

"Oh." The boy didn't seem to believe him, but at least he wasn't being as outwardly skeptical as Artie and Sugar had been. "Well, no I haven't. But I'll keep an eye out, okay? And have you seen Marley?"

"I'm not sure," Evan said honestly. "What does she look like?"

"Uh, brown hair, really pretty," the boy said. Which wasn't exactly helpful, since Evan had seen dozens of girls who fit that description this morning, and there was no way of knowing which one she was. "She's in the New Directions with us. I mean, with Sam," the boy added, grimacing slightly as he corrected himself. Yup, he definitely thought that Evan was just Sam in disguise. It was a little disconcerting to have nobody believe in his existence. He was really starting to look forward to shocking them all with the fact that – gasp! – he was actually real.

"Haven't seen her," Evan said. There was no way of knowing if that was a lie or not, but if the boy wasn't going to be more helpful, then there was nothing he could do about it.

"Okay, well, if you do, tell her that I'm looking for her," the boy said, turning to leave.

"That would be easier to do if I had your name," Evan said.

"Jake," the boy said, then walked off.

Well, asking him hadn't helped him to find Sam. Evan shrugged and decided to just wander around randomly in the hopes that they ran into each other. If that failed, he was sure he could find someone to give him directions to the choir room. Glee started in – he checked his watch – twelve minutes, so they could always meet up there if they didn't see each other earlier.

He stopped when he saw Brittany and the Asian girl from the photo in Blaine's locker standing a few feet in front of him, talking to a third girl about the Asian girl's rather odd outfit. She fit the description that Jake had given. Well, she and about a hundred other girls, but considering she was talking with two of the New Directions, he decided to take a guess. "Oh, hey there," he said as he approached. "You must, uh, be Marley."

"Hi, Sam," she said. So he'd guessed right.

"That's not Sam. That's Sam's smarter twin brother, Evan," Brittany explained. Evan sent her a grin, happy that he didn't have to explain it three times in a row, even if he really didn't think that it was necessary to clarify that he was "smarter". Which wasn't true, by the way.

He turned back to Marley and held out his hand, which she actually took, unlike Artie. "Evan Evans. What a pleasure to meet you," he said. Because hey, his parents had raised him a gentleman, and she looked like the kind of girl who could use a good compliment. "Oh, phone's ringing," he said, looking down in surprise. Well, technically it was vibrating – he'd turned his ring tone off for school – but same difference. He snorted when he saw who it was. Why hadn't be thought of calling Sam? So much for being the smarter twin. "It's my brother," he explained, hoping they wouldn't think he was rude for answering. "Oh hey, Sam! I was actually just looking for you!"

"Seriously? Because I've been to my locker and you're not there."

Evan gave the girls a quick smile and hurried off toward Sam's locker, turning down another hallway and hoping that he was going the right way. He was a bit hopeless when it came to directions. "Are you still there? Because I'll meet you there."

"Nah, just tell me where you are and I'll come find you," Sam said.

Evan glanced around. "Nothing but lockers around me. And a bulletin board with a bunch of sign-up sheets."

"Okay, I'll see you in a minute."

The line went dead. Evan blinked down at his phone, hoping Sam actually knew where he was, and leaned against the wall to wait.

A few seconds later, he heard Sam's voice from around the corner. "Hey, guys. Have you seen Evan?"

"You just missed him," Brittany said. "He went that way."

Sam gave a frustrated groan that made Evan chuckle. A moment later, he came flying around the corner, fast enough to almost smack straight into Evan. "Oh, there you are! Come on, Blaine sent me a text saying that he wanted to talk. Let's go meet up with him." He grabbed Evan's wrist and ran off, pulling him down the hallway.

"Uh, if he wanted to talk, should I really come with you?" Evan asked. "It could be personal."

Sam frowned, not slowing down. "But I want you to meet him."

Evan stopped and pulled his wrist free from Sam's grasp. "Why don't you go ahead? That will give you two a chance to talk alone, and I'll meet up with you in a few minutes."

Sam looked skeptical. "We're meeting backstage in the auditorium. You think you'll be able to find it on your own?"

Evan rolled his eyes at Sam's question, even though it was pretty legitimate, considering that Evan had proven that he could get lost in their own neighborhood before. And not even because he was drugged out, either. Just because he was directionally challenged. "Just tell me how to get there," he said.

Sam did, then ran off. Evan followed behind, taking his time so that they'd have more time to talk alone. Even so, it was only a minute or two before Evan had reached the auditorium. He walked in slowly, trying not to draw any attention.

Neither of them even noticed him approach. Blaine was watching the floor as he spoke, and Sam was watching Blaine like no one else even existed.

"-didn't do anything," Blaine said, hunching his shoulders in a way that made him look kind of like a kicked puppy. "I am so sorry," Blaine continued. "You were so freaked out on... on Tuesday, and I should have done something instead of just sitting there. I didn't even check up on you this weekend after you broke up with Brittany. God, I'm a terrible friend."

"No, you're not," Sam said. "We were all freaking out in that room. So you handled it differently than me. At least going all silent and withdrawn didn't almost get us all killed like I did."

"You don't need to say that," Blaine mumbled.

"I'm not just saying it," Sam said. "Anyway, I'm not really upset about the break up. I mean, it kind of stings a little, but it's no big deal." He smiled and wrapped one arm around Blaine's shoulders, pulling him against his side.

Evan suddenly remembered that the whole reason that Sam went ahead was so that they could speak to each other privately, and this was exactly the kind of scene that he shouldn't be eavesdropping on. He slowly began to back out, hoping that he could get away before either of them even noticed him.

"Besides," Sam said. "We both had family visiting, so there wasn't time to get together. I mean, my parents came back from Kentucky, and yours canceled all their meeting to spend time with you, right? You're the one who keeps saying that you don't get to see them much, so I would've kicked your butt if you had a chance to talk to them and wasted it hanging with me. And besides, Evan showed up on Sunday. I haven't seen him since freshman year, so we had a lot of catching up to do."

Evan froze at the sound of his name. Realistically, he knew that Sam wouldn't say anything bad – they'd already decided what to share with his friends and what to keep a secret. But he still couldn't make himself keep walking away.

Blaine instantly stiffened, his face taking on the same look he'd seen on the faces of all the New Directions (except Brittany). "Artie mentioned him to me," Blaine said, speaking carefully, like he thought Sam was as crazy as everyone else seemed to think. Okay, maybe that was taking it a little too far. But only a little bit. "So, he'd shown up before? You, uh, knew him freshman year?"

"Duh, dude, he's my bro. Of course I knew him," Sam said, looking confused for a moment before his expression brightened. "Oh, you're wondering why I never told you about him earlier. Sorry. I totally wanted to, but it's kind of a long story. Freshman year didn't exactly go well."

"What happened?" Blaine asked, looking at Sam with so much concern that it would have been touching if Evan hadn't been freaking out. No, Sam could _not_ tell anyone about freshman year. He wouldn't, would he? Of course not. He'd promised not to.

Evan had thought that eventually he'd get over this, that he'd be able to say "Oh, I'm a recovered drug addict" without being ashamed of himself. That day hadn't come yet, and he was starting to doubt that it ever would. Even thinking about anyone else knowing made him want to cry. Or faint. Either one.

"I can't tell you," Sam said quickly, and Evan almost collapsed in relief. "I would if I could, but it's not my story to tell. It's Evan's."

"Okay," Blaine said quietly, looking like he wanted to push for more information but had thankfully decided not to. "So... Do you know when Evan is going to come back?"

Sam shrugged. "He should be coming here any minute so that he can meet you, but I don't know when he'll show up." Sam didn't look too concerned about that. "Anyway, are we good? You don't feel bad about Tuesday?"

"We're good," Blaine said. "But... Are you okay? I'm right here if you need to talk about what happened. Or the Evan thing."

"Thanks." Sam gave Blaine a smile that was softer than anything Evan had ever seen from him before. "Hug it out?"

The two of them wrapped their arms around each other, and something in Evan's chest felt like it cracked.

It made sense. The way that all of Sam's stories seemed to revolve around Blaine. The pictures in his locker. The fact that out of everyone, Blaine was the one that Sam most wanted Evan to meet. The way Sam never mentioned any girls except in passing, even though he was clearly in love with someone. Evan had had an idea about what that meant swirling in the back of his mind, but he hadn't wanted to think about it. But now, watching Sam close his eyes and take a deep breath, holding Blaine way too tight, resting his chin on Blaine's shoulder, smiling, looking more peaceful than Evan had seen him in a long time-

Sam was in love with Blaine.

It wasn't like Evan had a problem with Sam liking a guy. Love is love and all that jazz. Sam could be gay or bi or whatever and it wouldn't be a problem. But Evan hadn't know. They were twins. They should know everything about each other, but Evan had never even thought for a minute that Sam wouldn't be in love with a girl. He wondered if their parents knew. If this was a recent thing, or if Sam had always known he wasn't straight. How much had Evan missed? And what other secrets did Sam have that Evan didn't know?

He stumbled back, trying to hurry out of the auditorium before either of them could see him. But apparently he didn't move fast enough, because a second later Sam's eyes opened and locked on his. And their must have been something off about his face, because when Sam followed Evan out into the hallway, Blaine didn't come with him. "Are you okay?" Sam asked. "You look kind of weird."

Did he? Evan couldn't even tell, but he made sure to force his mouth into a smile. "Nah. You two just looked like you were having a moment. Didn't want to interrupt you." His cheeks were hurting from the effort of holding his fake smile. He quickly changed the subject to the first thing that came to mind. "Can you believe that nobody thinks I exist?"

Sam frowned. "Wait, they don't?" he asked. "That would explain why Blaine was acting so weird when I talked about you, I guess. But what exactly do they think?"

"That you've created some alter-ego or something," Evan said.

Sam's eyes brightened with understanding. "Oh, just like when we were kids! Except back then they thought that I was you and you were me. This time, they think both of us are me."

Yes, it was exactly like when they were kids.

"Anyway, we should go clear up the confusion," Sam said, gesturing toward the auditorium door. "And now you can finally meet Blaine!" Evan swore Sam's tone changed when he said that name, becoming softer and more loving, his lips twitching up into a hint of a smile.

The pain tore through Evan's chest again. And with it, another revelation. He wasn't just hurt by how little he knew Sam. He was jealous.

He wanted Sam to be happy, of course he did. But for so long, Evan had been the one to make him happy. They'd taken care of each other when Mom and Dad were working long hours. Sometimes both parents pulled night shifts at the same time, so Evan and Sam had to keep each other and their younger siblings company in their otherwise-empty apartment. They'd practically done as much to raise Stacey and Stevie as their parents had. There had been game nights, cooking disasters, horror movies that Evan pretended to be terrified of just because he knew it made Sam feel less ashamed of his own fear. And Evan had thrown that all away when high school began. He'd known this already, but somehow, it was just hitting him now. He and Sam still cared about each other, but he wasn't the source of his twin's happiness. Sam had found other people. He didn't need Evan anymore.

It was absurd, but he couldn't help but feel like Blaine had taken his place. It hurt.

Two things suddenly became clear, and he spoke before he even had a chance to think it through. "Can we keep doing this?" When Sam looked confused, Evan hurried to explain. "Pretend that we actually are the same person, and see how long it takes them to catch on. Another prank. Just like when we were little, like you said. We'll tell them the truth on Friday if they don't figure it out, but until then-"

"Okay," Sam said, cutting him off.

Evan blinked. He'd expected more resistance than that, to be honest. "Okay?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "Something's bugging you. Don't try to say that it's not, because I can tell. And for some reason, you really want to do this. I don't know what's going on, but if it makes you happy, then okay."

"Thanks," Evan said quietly.

He did want this. That was the first thing he had realized – that what he wanted most in the world was to go back to the days before any problems had ripped them apart. Obviously that couldn't happen, so he wanted the next best thing. To hold on, to keep being Sam's brother like they had been when they were little and loved each other more than anyone else in the world. To pretend that nothing was wrong.

And the second thing he realized? They couldn't do that. Too much had changed. He wasn't the one making Sam happy anymore, and even if Sam loved him, it wouldn't be enough to erase what happened. Maybe Sam could forget it, but Evan never would.

So if Evan couldn't do what he wanted, he had to settle for the next best thing yet again. Blaine made Sam happy; anyone could see that. So Evan had to be the mature older brother that he hadn't been in years, and take care of Sam the only way he could. By making sure that Blaine would always be there for Sam, then stepping back. By the end of the week, Blaine and Sam would be dating – Evan would make sure of that. Then he could return to Florida with the knowledge that Sam would be okay, and everything would be made right.

Well, almost everything. But that was the best Evan could do.

"You're welcome," Sam said, like he really didn't realize how big a deal his agreement was, or how desperately Evan wanted this. "What are brothers for?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Ugh, real life made it hard to get this next one written. But I'm back, and hopefully I'll have a lot more time to write now that I'm done with school for the summer!**

**As always, much love to my beta, Tuuzmorado, for being all-around awesome and just generally amazing.**

* * *

Evan wasn't entirely sure what was supposed to happen next. But after a minute, Sam pulled out his phone to check the time. "We should head to Glee club pretty soon. Why don't I go ahead? I'll go run into the room and announce that I'm looking for you or something, make them keep thinking we're the same person. I'll call you when it's safe for you to enter without the two of us being seen together?"

"Uh, yeah, sounds good," Evan said after a moment of surprise. When he'd said that he wanted to keep pretend to be the same person, he'd just meant that he didn't want to be seen together or anything like that. He hadn't thought that they'd purposely try to trick everyone else, but he wasn't going to complain if that's what Sam wanted. And anyway, that was more like what they'd done as kids. He couldn't help but smile. It was like Sam knew what Evan wanted to do, even if he himself didn't.

"And you can go meet Blaine now!" Sam exclaimed, a grin lighting up his face. "I mean, it might be kind of weirder than I imagined, since Blaine's going to think that you're secretly me. But still, I can't wait for you two to get to know each other! Tell me what you think of him, okay?"

"I will," Evan promised. "I already know that I'm going to love him, though." Evan didn't have any doubts about that. There had been something about the pictures in Sam's lockers that made Blaine look like an extremely lovable person. Exactly the kind of guy Sam needed in his life; someone who could be there for him instead of leaving him all alone. The thought made Evan's throat tight, but he swallowed hard and tried to smile.

Sam's smile got even goofier. "Yeah," he said. Evan hoped that he didn't look half as stupid when he thought about Chloe as Sam did now.

"Are you okay?" Blaine called. His voice was coming from around the corner in the auditorium, and getting closer.

"That's my cue to run!" Sam said, and took off without another word.

"Sam? What were you doing?"

Evan turned and saw Blaine standing in the doorway, looking concerned. Thankfully, he didn't seem to have seen the real Sam run off. "Sam had to go somewhere for a bit," Evan said casually. "But he wanted me to introduce myself to you. Believe me, Sam has told me so many good things about you." He held out his hand.

Blaine took it. His touch was soft, his skin barely skimming Evan's, like he was afraid that holding any more tightly would break him. "I'm Blaine," he said slowly, looking like he couldn't quite decide whether to call "Sam" out or just go along with it, and choosing the latter. "So, uh, what has Sam said about me?" he asked, not dropping Evan's hands. Evan wondered whether Blaine ever held Sam's hand like this, and if he did, how had Sam possibly not realized that Blaine was into him?

Blaine was into Sam, right? Evan thought so, but it would always be good to check. "Oh, normal stuff," he said casually, sliding his hand out of Blaine's, hopefully without being obvious about it. This was a bit of a difficult position. On one hand, he didn't exactly want to walk hand-in-hand with some guy he'd only just met. (He kind of hated holding hands. Not even Chloe could force him to do it most of the time.) But then, the last thing he wanted was to make Blaine think that "Sam" was pulling away because he wasn't interested in him.

"Mostly it was stories about the Glee club," Evan continued. Blaine started to walk toward the choir room (at least, Evan assumed that that was where they were headed). Evan followed along, though he kept going slow so that they wouldn't accidentally run into Sam. "You played a starring role in almost all of them. He showed me that video you made for him – thank you for that, by the way. And there was a really, eh, interesting one about him stripping during the student council elections." Blaine coughed like he was trying to hide a laugh. "He also said that you have a crush on him?"

Blaine instantly stopped laughing, color flooding into his face. "I _had_ a crush on him," he said, way too quickly, then continued talking so fast that the sentences blurred together. "Not anymore. I'm over it. We're just friends."

"You don't still like him?" Evan asked, making himself look concerned even though Blaine's reaction made him think that the opposite was true. "He'll be so disappointed to hear that! And just when I was thinking that he was going to let you out of the friend zone, too."

"What?" Blaine sounded like he was choking.

Evan nodded slowly, forcing his face into a serious look. "You don't really care about that, though, since you don't like him anymore," he said with a small shrug. "Let's talk about something else. Like, the glee club. You know, I've never actually heard Sam sing. He didn't start until sophomore year, and I wasn't around then. Is he good?"

Blaine frowned, looking like he couldn't quite follow the sudden topic change. But after a moment his expression cleared, and he quickly nodded. "Yeah, he's amazing. Seriously, his voice is beautiful. And I'm not just saying that because you're his... twin." Blaine smiled a little, the corners of his mouth barely turning up, and sent Evan massive heart eyes. If there had been any doubt that Blaine still had a crush on Sam, it was gone now.

It was also a little weird for Evan to have the heart eyes aimed at _him_, even if Blaine was only doing it because he thought he was talking to Sam. But at least the crush had been confirmed, and hopefully Evan had at least planted the idea that Sam liked Blaine, even if Blaine didn't know what to make of those comments right now. That was a good start.

Evan reached over and grabbed Blaine's hand again, squeezing it tightly. Who cared if holding hands felt a little juvenile to him, and that the feeling of someone's fingers intertwined with his just bothered him for some weird reason? This was for Sam. If Evan acted affectionate while pretending to be Sam, then maybe Blaine would also start acting more affectionate to the real Sam, which could only end well.

Blaine's hand tightened around Evan's. Evan shifted uncomfortably but told himself not to pull away.

"We should hurry up," Blaine said, frowning down at his watch. "Glee was supposed to start a minute ago, and I don't want to be even later than we already are." Evan vaguely wondered if the person leading the club – Mr. Schue, he thought – was a really strict about starting on time, or if Blaine was just extremely punctual.

Even bit his lip, trying to figure out how to stall, but right then, his phone vibrated. Which should mean that Sam was gone from the choir room and it was safe to enter. "You go ahead, I have to take this," he said, waving Blaine forward. Blaine frowned like he wanted to protest, but after a moment of indecision he walked away. "Hey, Sam," Evan said, walking slowly toward the door that Blaine had disappeared into.

"Go ahead and go into the choir room now," Sam said. "I'm headed to my math teacher's room so she can explain how to do some problems – might as well do that now if I'm not going to club, right? Tell me what happened later, okay? Have fun meeting everyone! Oh, and if anyone asks, don't tell them where I am. Say whatever you like, just not the math room."

Evan hesitated for just a moment outside of the room. He wasn't much of a people-person, and even though he had no problems at all with talking to small groups (even if those groups were made up of strangers), the thought of meeting the whole club at once was a daunting. It hadn't bothered him before, when he'd thought that Sam would be next to him the whole time. But on his own, he was a little nervous.

He forced those thoughts aside and made himself walk in, keeping his voice steady so nobody would be able to see his nerves. "All right, bro. Well, I'll tell them you said hi. Have fun at the zoo." Because, well, Sam had said to pretend he was anywhere else. Why not there?

A few people looked up as Evan entered, and he hunched his shoulders like he was trying to shield himself from their eyes. Thankfully, they glanced away after a few seconds.

Sam snorted. "You didn't even pick somewhere in the school? No one's going to believe that I'm really at the zoo."

Well, yeah, that was kind of the point. They were trying to trick the glee club into thinking they were the same person, and saying ridiculous things added to the effect. He didn't explain that, though, because right then a man walked into the room. Evan quickly hung up his phone and took a seat, frowning when he saw that there was already someone sitting on either side of Blaine, meaning that Evan couldn't sit by him. He sighed and headed to the very back row, next to Brittany, hopefully far enough back that none of the others would pay attention to him. Being in this crowded room with so many strangers was making him nervous, so he crossed his arms and propped his feet on the chair in front of him to try to pretend that he was completely calm.

"Big news, guy," Mr. Schue said as he walked to the center of the room. "I just got a direct tweet from the Greater Midwest Regional High School Show Choir Board of Directors." Man, that was a mouthful. Evan wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but everyone else looked excited, so he clapped along. "The theme for this year's Regionals is..."

Oh, so that was what they were so happy about. Artie and another boy that Evan didn't recognize did a drum roll, and Mr. Schue headed to the white board on the back wall.

"Sweaters," Brittany guessed.

"Dreams," Mr. Schue said, writing it across the board.

"Ah, close," Brittany said, and Evan gave her an amused look. She was possibly the most adorable person he had ever seen – except Chloe, but then, he was required to say that his girlfriend was the best in everything.

"As you know, some of the past judges we've had haven't been that bright, or that sober," Mr. Schue said, walking to the center of the room again. Wait, some of the judges had been drunk? Evan hadn't heard that story, and he was definitely going to ask Sam about it later. "So our best bet is to take the dream theme literally. We'll start out with Dream Weaver, then we'll segue into Sweet Dreams, and we'll bring it home with You Make My Dreams Come True." Evan clapped again, since that seemed to be what Mr. Schue was waiting for, then stopped when he realized that nobody else looked excited anymore. "Marley, you're frowning."

"No, I just don't know any of those songs," she said, obviously wanting to say more, but hesitating.

Mr. Schue didn't seem to realize, because he said happily, "Well, you'll know them soon enough, because we're going to learn them today." He grabbed a pile of sheet music and began handing it out.

"Maybe we could try original songs, like you guys did two years ago," Marley suggested. Evan hadn't planned on saying anything, but she sounded so unsure of herself that Evan decided to help her out.

"Oh yeah," he said, "My twin brother Sam told me that you totally crushed Regionals two years ago with those sweet tunes."

"Well, uh, Evan." Mr. Schue made a vague gesture with his hand that somehow made it clear that he didn't believe that Evan existed any more than the rest of the New Directions did. Also, how did he know Evan's name? That was a little weird, considering that he had just arrived, so it wasn't like he could have heard it from someone, unless he'd been talking to someone in the hallway? Evan decided to not even think about it. "That was a different time and a different team."

So, this team wasn't as good as the one two years ago? Based on the way Sam had talked about them, Evan doubted that was true. And even if it was, a teacher shouldn't be saying to their faces that they weren't as good as the old club. Evan really wanted to point that out, but instead he slumped down in his seat, not wanting to draw more attention by saying anything more.

"Mr Schue, could we at least just talk about the set list?" Marley asked, her voice getting almost desperate now. "I mean, when Finn was here we got to help-"

"Do I have to remind you guys how lucky we are to even be at Regionals?" Mr. Schue demanded, in a voice that made Evan flinch instinctively. "We are there on a technicality, which means that there is no room for even the smallest of mistakes. Trust me. Anyone else have something they want to say?" Complete silence. Nobody dared to speak up. "Great. Brad, warm them up."

They spent the next twenty minutes rehearsing the first song. Everyone sounded good and all, but nobody looked like they were enjoying themselves. Evan made sure to stick close to Marley, and smiled at her whenever their eyes met, since she looked like she was so upset. That Jake guy seemed to be doing a good job of comforting her, though. They were very cute, holding hands and squeezing each other's shoulders.

Finally, the bell rang. Quite frankly, Evan was relieved to get out of there. So far, glee club didn't look like the safe haven that Sam made it out to be.

He pulled out his phone as he walked into the hall. There was one new text from Sam. _Goin strght to clas now, but let me no how it went soon!_ Evan rolled his eyes at the text-speak and was about to type a response, but was stopped by a hand on his arm.

"We can't let Mr. Schue do this," Blaine said. He was standing too close for Evan's liking, but he reminded himself that Blaine thought that he was Sam, and that he had to send the right signals.

Evan shrugged. Yeah, that teacher seemed out of control, but he wasn't sure what they could do. "You going to do something about it?"

"I'm going to try," Blaine said, looking far away for a moment before snapping himself back to reality. "Come on, I'll walk you to class."

"Uh, I think Sam is already there," Evan said, and winced when it made the concerned look appear on Blaine's face again. "Oh, I have an idea! Why don't you go to to class, and when you arrive, I bet you Sam will already be there! Like, magic!"

"Sure, okay," Blaine said, looking skeptical, but started up a staircase anyway, glancing back at Evan repeatedly as he did. Evan grinned and made a big point of leaning down to get a drink from the fountain, then slowly ambling away in the wrong direction. He snorted, trying to imagine the look on Blaine's face when he got to class and realized that Sam really had gotten there ahead of him. It was almost enough to make him want to follow Blaine just so he'd be able to see him shocked expression, but decided that it'd be too risky. He didn't want to get caught on day one, after all.

* * *

Evan didn't really have anywhere to go during the day. The original plan had been to follow Sam to all of his classes, but they couldn't do that without giving their trick away, so Evan found himself with nowhere to go. He thought about wandering the halls, but the last thing he wanted was to accidentally get Sam in trouble for not being in class. After a minute or two of walking around randomly, he found himself at the library and ducked inside. This would be perfect. He grabbed _Wuthering Heights_ off a shelf (his English teacher had told him to read it while he was gone) and curled up in a chair in the back corner of the library, behind a shelf of dusty reference books that probably hadn't been used all year. Nobody would find him there.

That's where he still was a few hours later, when he got a call from Sam.

"Sorry I couldn't call earlier!" Sam said quickly, sounding slightly out-of-breath. "I didn't have time between most of my classes. And anyway, I wanted to wait until I was along so that we could talk freely instead of having to keep up the trick. I just had to run down two hallways and duck into a janitor's closet to avoid the glee club, but I'm good now! What are you doing?"

Evan laughed. He could totally picture Sam going crazy trying to avoid everyone, and probably humming spy music under his breath while he did. "I'm in the library, getting some reading done."

"God, you must be bored to death," Sam said.

Evan chuckled again. "Hey, not all of us hate reading as much as you do," he said. "And anyway, I need to read it for my lit class. There's some more make-up work at home that needs to get done, too, so I'll be good when you're in class." This would be really convenient, actually. He'd sort of planned to put off all of his work until the long ride home, because he wanted to spend as much time with Sam and wouldn't let school get in the way of that. But he wouldn't complain about being able to get his work done early.

"Okay, good," Sam said. "I felt bad about leaving you alone all day, but if you've got things to do, then I guess I don't have to. Though I wouldn't complain about you going to some of my classes for me... Especially science. You've taken Chemistry, right?"

"Last year," Evan said. It had been a really interesting class, too, even if the school hadn't taught it all that well. "Sure, just tell me when you want me to stand in for you. I'm not taking any of your tests, though, so get that idea out of your head."

"Aw, you're no fun." Evan could practically hear Sam's pout through the phone. "So how did glee go?"

Evan hesitated, not sure what to say about that. "All the other kids seemed nice," Evan said. Not that he'd actually gotten a chance to talk to them, but they all looked friendly enough, so it wasn't technically a lie. "Mr. Schue was pretty strict, though. Nobody was that happy with the set list he picked for Regionals."

"That's not like him," Sam said, sounding confused. "Well, the thing about choosing bad songs is, but he's normally pretty cool about listening to what we say. Oh! I bet that's what Blaine was talking about."

"Probably," Evan said with a nod, lowering his voice when the librarian peeked around the shelf and glared at him. Which was weird; he hadn't even thought that she knew he was here.

"There's some secret glee club meeting in the auditorium at lunch," Sam said. "It'll probably start around noon. You should go."

Evan shook his head, as pointless as that was when Sam couldn't see him. "I already went this morning. You shouldn't skip two in a row, especially if you're getting ready for some competition or something." He didn't mention the he'd been nervous enough about meeting the entire glee club on his own this morning, and that he wasn't all too keen on going to another meeting.

"How about you go in there first, and I'll trade places with you before we get to the important stuff?"

Evan thought that over for a minute. If he got there late, then he wouldn't really have to talk to them much, or try to fit into the giant group. "Okay, I can do that."

"Yes! I'll sneak in the side door to the right of the stage, so you can- Crap, I think the janitor's coming back!"

Evan covered his mouth with one hand to hold back his laughter as Sam swore under his breath. "You were serious about hiding in the janitor's closet?"

"Uh, yeah, of course," Sam said, sounding surprised that Evan would even doubt him. "Shit, gotta go!" he exclaimed, then hung up. Evan slipped his phone back into his pocket and picked up his book again, making a mental note to ask Sam later about what happened after he hung up.

He finished the book a little later and set it down, pulling out his phone to check the time. Five minutes to noon. He still had a little time before the meeting, but he might as well head there now. Anyway, it might take him that long to find the auditorium again.

Everyone else was already there when Evan arrived, to his relief. That meant that he wouldn't have to be there for long before the meeting would begin and Sam could take his place. Blaine was standing in front of the rows of seats, holding a gavel of all things. "What's with that?" Evan asked, gesturing to the gavel as he walked over. He'd thought that only judges and guys like that actually used gavels.

Blaine frowned. "It was your idea," he said. "We talked about this in history, remember? You insisted that I use it."

"That was Sam, not me," Evan explained, snorting softly because yeah, he could just picture Sam getting completely overexcited about the idea. And now Blaine was looking at him like he was even crazier. Great.

The rest of the club were filling in the seats. Evan dropped down in the front row, next to Jake, glancing to the right as he did. At first, it didn't look like anyone was there, but after a moment he saw Sam slip in through the side door.

Blaine banged his gavel on the stage, and everyone quieted down. "As honorary Rachel, I'd like to convene this secret meeting of the glee club."

"Sam's sorry he couldn't make it. He said to tell all of you that- Whoap." His phone started to vibrate then, and he glanced down, expecting another text from Sam. Instead, it was from Chloe. She must have decided to call during her lunch period. He couldn't say that, though, since none of them knew who Chloe was (not to mention that making them think that Sam was talking to a girl would be counterproductive to getting Sam and Blaine together). So instead, Evan said, "Just got a text. He's here." He jumped to his feet and ran off to the right, calling as he did, "Oh, hey Sam!"

"Hey, Evan!" Sam called back. Evan ducked down behind the chair that Sam was hiding behind and answered his phone while Sam ran out to join the group.

"How's your day been?" Chloe asked immediately. "Did you meet his friends? Do you like them? Do they like you?"

"Um, yeah," Evan said, half of his attention on the glee club, where Blaine was saying something about Sam, though Evan had a hard time hearing what. After a moment he gave up on listening in on the meeting and returned his focus to Chloe. "Sorry, I was distracted."

"Fine, fine," she said impatiently. "Just tell me how it's going!"

"Good," Evan said slowly. "Weird, but good."

"Weird how?"

He bit his lip, considering his answer. "It's not like what I was expecting. Or anyone was expecting, I guess."

"Evan Alexander Evans, if you don't stop with the vague answers and actually tell me what's going on, I will... uh..." Her voice faltered, then she said, "I don't actually know what I'll do, since we're about four states away from each other, but I'll find something!"

He chuckled. She tried to pretend she was threatening, but Evan knew better by now. Then he tried to come up with what to say, and his good humor died away. "Sam still acts so much like he did freshman year," Evan said slowly. "I guess I was expecting everything about him to be the same, like I could slip back into his life like nothing was different. That was stupid, right?"

"Not stupid," she said immediately. "Unrealistic, but not stupid. What happened?"

Evan explained about Blaine, and the trick that he and Sam were pulling. He spoke slowly, trying to put into words what he was feeling, but he didn't feel like he was doing a very good job. He'd never been very good about talking about these things.

She was silent for a minute after he was done, then spoke softly. "I don't think this is a good idea. You said it yourself, you can't go back to being kids again. Shouldn't you focus on trying to make a new relationship with Sam instead of going back to the old one?"

He shook his head. This was why he was hesitant to talk to her about it, why he'd answered so vaguely at first. Chloe knew more about him than anyone else, but she still didn't understand. "The old relationship was better," Evan said. "Any knew one we make is going to be... I don't know, just strained and different and not as good. And we can make that later, after I go back to Florida. But for now, I just want to be brothers with him. Why is that such a bad thing?"

"You'll always be brothers with him, no matter what," Chloe argued. "And anyway, how do you know that it's going to be worse that it used to be? Why couldn't it be stronger?"

Evan rolled his eyes at that. He'd explained a lot of what he'd done freshman year, mostly against his will (she'd dragged it out of him the morning after his first drunken confession that he'd used to do drugs), but despite that, she still didn't seem to understand how badly he'd messed up. Maybe because she hadn't been the one to live through it.

"I'm just saying that you should talk to him," Chloe insisted. "And your parents-"

"Sam's coming, go to go," Evan said quickly, then glanced back and realized that it was actually true, Sam was in fact heading for him. He started to hand up, then stopped and brought the phone to his ear. "I love you," he said. He and Chloe had an agreement. No matter how mad they got at each other, they weren't supposed to hang up without saying that. If they ever did, then it meant that something was seriously wrong.

"Love you too," she said. "And think about it, okay?"

Evan hung up without another word.

"Hey," Sam said, dropping down behind the row of chairs. "Did you hear what happened at the meeting?" When Evan shook his head, Sam said, "Well, Blaine was awesome! He's taking charge of the whole club! We came up with whole new songs. We're going to meet again tomorrow to practice them, so that they'll be all ready to show Mr. Schue on Wednesday. Blaine figures that if we have them perfect, and we're ready to show it off, then Mr. Schue will have to agree with our choices! That's a great idea, isn't it?"

Evan nodded, making himself smile. "Blaine's really smart."

Sam frowned. "You okay?" he asked. "You seem sad."

"Oh, no, of course not," Evan said quickly. "What makes you think I'm sad? I'm thrilled that you guys are taking control! What songs did you pick?"

Sam didn't look convinced, but he shrugged. "We'll talk about that later," he said. Evan wasn't sure if he meant that they'd talk about the songs or about Evan looking sad, but decided not to ask. "Now, you should get going. The glee club is going down to the cafeteria to eat something quick before lunch ends, and you should go with them!"

"What?" Evan asked. "Don't you want to get something to eat?"

"I've got the car. I figured I can sneak out and grab something quick," Sam said. "That means you'll have to go to my next class, though. Chemistry, like I said earlier. That okay?"

"Uh." Evan should say yes. He didn't know why he was so reluctant to agree, when Sam looked like he wanted him to do it so badly.

Except that there were eleven members of the New Directions, if Evan had counted right. That was a lot of people, especially for Evan. He hated crowds. Even a group of four or five was enough to make him uncomfortable, even if he'd gotten pretty good at acting like he wasn't. Sure, he could go to a glee club rehearsal where everyone was quiet and organized and focused on the music. He sometimes even went to crowded parties where everyone was packed up against each other, but that was only when he had alcohol to calm him down. Sober? He couldn't do it. Not even with a smaller group like this.

But Sam wanted him to.

"Okay," Evan said, taking a deep breath to try to steady himself and offering Sam a wavering smile.

"You sure?" Sam asked, suddenly looking unsure. "I mean, I want you to meet them, but-"

"No, I'll go," Evan said. "But only lunch and one class, okay? Then I'm headed back to the library." He stood and walked back to the the middle of the auditorium before Sam had a chance to agree.

Blaine was the only one left in the auditorium. Everyone else had supposedly gone on ahead. "Oh, uh, Sam found you," Blaine said, his voice too cheerful, like the way you'd talk to a toddler who's pretending to have an imaginary friend. Then he frowned, and his voice got more normal. "What's wrong?"

Evan scowled. "Why does everyone think that something's wrong?" he snapped. "I'm fine." He took another deep breath. He hadn't meant to snap that. He had to get himself back under control.

"Okay," Blaine said as Evan walked past him, forcing him to scramble to catch up. "You know that you can talk to me about anything, right? Even if you're pretending to be... I mean, even though I don't know you as well as I know Sam."

Another deep breath. "I know." Another fake smile. "Let's just go to lunch."

"Okay," Blaine said again. He glanced down at Evan's hand like he was trying to decide if he should take it.

Evan stuffed his hands into his pocket and kept walking.


End file.
